Monday, March 26, 2012

I Dream of Muffulettas at Noon...

Just a quick note: The CRPG Addict is in New Orleans this week, with no particular evening plans, giving all of my NOLA readers (I know I have at least one) a chance to fulfill your ethical obligation to buy me a gimlet. E-mail me at crpgaddict@gmail.com if you want to hook up somewhere in the area of the Vieux Carre.

There's a small window tomorrow between the time I wake up (c. 14:00) and the time I head out to the city (c. 17:00) that I might get out a Sentinel Worlds posting.

I had tried to post some info on upcoming games, but apparently it didn't stick in the last post. We are reaching the era when I first started playing PC games, so can offer some more information.

Heroes of the Lance/Dragon's of Flame(#97)- Not really RPGs. The first was set up as a side-scrolling game with a real-time combat(swing, block, duck, cast spells from pause menu). If you had a map/walkthrough, you could complete Heroes of the Lance in about an hour. Your only decisions are in combat or which path to take. Dragons of Flame added some extra features but has the same core gameplay. (I had these 2 games in a 3 pack with Hillsfar).

Hillsfar(#103)- This game is related to the Pools of Radiance/Curse of the Azure Bonds games, but is set up as a single PC sidequest. The menu included options to import/export a single character from those games to play in this one, and then return them back once done. Or create a new character from scratch.

Not sure how much this fits your RPG criteria, it is primarily a series of mini-games(horseback riding, arena, target shooting, lock-picking) with exploration and quests connecting them. The game is very locked down- only 2 magic items can be found and used and any character equipment is ignored(the in game reason is the city frowns heavily on unregulated magic or violence). The class of character you bring influences where you get your quests, what weapons you can use on the archery range, and lockpicking availability.

Buck Rogers(#123)- SSI used the Gold Box game engine from the Pools of Radiance related games with upgrades(VGA!) for a science fiction game. Outside of new races/terms/items, it should be pretty easy to pick up.

Dragon Strike(#134)- Haven't played this one, but remembering the ads it was billed as a dragon flight-simulator. Don't think this really counts in the RPG genre, but might be interesting to try out.

Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace(#247)- If you aren't tired of science fiction games of space travel yet, here's the cherry on top- D&D IN SPACE. Yeah, some of the expanded D&D settings got weird.

MegaTraveller I(#147)- another science fiction RPG. This one is based off the Traveller pen and dice game(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveller_%28role-playing_game%29). I'm hoping some general background info might ease you in.

Hero Quest/Quest for Glory I(#116)- there was a VGA remake several years later. It improved the graphics and switched to a parser-less engine(everything was through the mouse like the later games in the series and later King's Quest games). The reason for the name change was:

Hero Quest(#230,#231)- PC implementation of a Hasbro board game. Hasbro took Sierra to court over the use of the same name, and at some point published a PC game to help with their claim. The board game is a sort of lite dungeon crawl(up to 4 heroes(warrior, wizard, elf, and dwarf) with a 5th person setting up the board, controlling the monsters, and reading the story/events). I still have the game and the first 2 expansions; I think later related games got folded into the Warhammer system.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeroQuestIt probably fits in the RPG category, but there isn't a lot of depth to the story or choices you can make.

Bard's Tale Construction Set(#169)- I recall several 'XXX Contruction Kit' games released at different times, those were more engines of successful games with the toolkit for people to make their own adventures. I'm not sure if they came with example quests, or if you want to get side-tracked into fan-made games.

As much as I appreciate them, I had meant to disable commenting on this posting so I could just delete it later. Now I'll have to preserve it.

Bobby, I agree. The muffuletta is my favorite sandwich. The title of the posting comes from an alternative bridge to the song "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" that I penned myself:

The evening breeze on Frenchman StreetThe river walk, the Vieux CarreI dream of muffulettas at noonAnd soon I'm planning to go and stay

Kellandros, your comment originally went to spam. I don't get Blogger's spam blocker. Usually, weeks and weeks go by without anything flagged as spam--long enough that I forget to keep checking. Then, suddenly, there will be six messages in there on one day. Sorry for the hassle.

No worries. I figured it could be a spam trap(they generally don't like multiple comments one after another in the same thread). Or that it was something with my work's network; as they seemed to disappear when I got home that night and looked for new comments.

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About Me

Chester Bolingbroke is a professional in his early 40s who really should be doing something more productive with his time. He lives in Maine with his patient wife, Irene, and when he isn't playing CRPGs, he enjoys traveling, crossword puzzles, and jazz.

The Rules

1. I am following a list of CRPGs in chronological order derived from several sources, including Wikipedia, MobyGames, GameFAQs, and contributions from readers. I am going in chronological order on two sections of the list: a) all RPGs in the 1990s, and b) non-PC RPGs that I missed during my first four years of blogging when I played only games released for DOS.

2. To appear on my play list, a game must be a a) single-player RPG released for a personal computer, and b) in a language that uses a Latin alphabet.

3. My definition of "RPG" requires the game to have three core criteria: 1) character leveling and development, 2) combats based at least partly on attribute-derived statistics, 3) inventories consisting of something other than just puzzle items. If I reach a game on my playlist and it lacks one of these items, I may mark it as "rejected" and skip it.

4. I can reject independent and shareware RPGs if they are clearly amateur efforts with no innovations or accolades attached to them.

5. I cannot use cheats. I cannot look at FAQs or walkthroughs until I have finished playing.

6. I don't have to win every game, but I must play for at least six hours.